Current building block design and construction practices generally adhere to a closed-core/closed cavity model. This mode of construction has been dutifully adopted without regard to material efficiency or to the widely known shortfalls of continuous panel walls in building construction.
Inherent to continuous panel walls constructed with continuous flange building blocks is material inefficiency. Classic block construction consists of the familiar, rectangular, concrete masonry units CMU with two closed cores that are readily available at construction supply wholesalers and retailers. The blocks are mortared and leveled by masonry crews who reinforce the walls by placing grout with embedded reinforcing bars, rods, or cables within one or both of the two cores. Strength design calculations for these units are based on the compressive strength capacity of the wall section—the concrete face subject to loading, and on the tensile strength of the reinforcing rods, bars, or cables. Other than the area of the block face subject to loading, the compression face, generally less than the total thickness of the face, and the tension reinforcing; no other components factor into the strength design calculations. Thus, neither the parallel face opposite the loading source i.e. side opposite the wind direction nor the interior cores figure into the strength design. Thus, an entire side of structurally superfluous material is created by following the typical closed core, closed cavity block system.
In contrast, corrugated panels have long been recognized and used as a means for optimizing panel materials and strength. Easily recognized examples include cardboard boxes and corrugated sheet metal used for roof decking, floor decking, wall siding, and drainage pipes. Formed and cast-in-place concrete construction including tilt-up concrete walls for industrial and commercial buildings operations have approached this optimization by utilizing the T-beam shapes seen on highway bridges and parking garage floor decks as well as the industrial and commercial buildings previously mentioned. The structural optimization derived in these widely known applications has not been successfully transferred to building block construction. A quick site visit to almost any new construction project in any area of the country reveals that in spite of the multitude of patented block designs, the shape of choice remains the standard, rectangular, concrete masonry unit CMU with two cores.